Hometown Collections Exhibit to Open at Summit Art Gallery
Weirton, WV – From January 28 through March 10, 2022, the Summit Art Gallery will present an exhibition of works by six artists. Hometown Collections features the paintings, illustrations, sports art, and photography of West Virginia and Ohio artists, with subjects ranging from natural landscapes to surrealist portraits.
“The Top of West Virginia Arts Council is proud to exhibit the works of this diverse group of local artists,” said Dennis Jones, Top of WV Arts Council member and event chair.
Hometown Collections artists include:
Gretchen Carter, a professional photographer with experience in events, sports, and portrait photography. Carter earned the level of Master Photographer from the Professional Photographers of America in 2017 and has several awards in the field. This exhibit includes her landscape images, in which Carter captures the personality and story of each location.
Dan Enich is also the Director of Career, Technical, and Adult Education for the Hancock County School System and the Director of the John D. Rockefeller Career Center. Because of his love for sports and art, Dan has always enjoyed doing sports art and has done hundreds of footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, and baseballs for the community, charity, and for booster clubs.
Alice S Quinn (Sherry) has lived in Hancock County most of her adult life. She was born in Doddridge County on a farm where she lived until she was eleven years old. There, Quinn spent time learning to work hard, reading, telling stories, and creating her own pictures. Her art teacher at Weirton Jr. High, Mrs. Pesta, encouraged her to create. Quinn worked in Weirton and Steubenville as a licensed optician until 2003. She is now finding time to enjoy art.
Elly Quinn was born in Weirton, West Virginia and graduated from Weir High in 1979. She has an associates degree in nursing from WVNCC. Quinn began painting after the untimely death of a close friend, which inspired her first depiction of an angel surfing the clouds. Many of Quinn’s paintings have a deeper meaning than what might be observed at first glance, and acrylics have been her expression of emotions and life experiences.
Kim Salter is a long-time resident of Weirton, WV and has been drawing since childhood. Her first drawing class was for kids at Jefferson Technical College in Steubenville, OH. Over the years Salter has studied drawing, oil painting, and watercolor. For Salter, painting is to create, to express oneself and to escape, just for a while in your own corner of the universe.
Gerald Van Scyoc has studied painting, video, film, and graphic design. Van Scyoc worked as a graphic designer for many years, and currently works as the art instructor at a music and art supply store in Ohio. He prefers oil painting to provoke strong responses from viewers. Working in a photorealistic and surrealist style, Van Scyoc combines well-known symbols and tropes in new and not-well-known combinations. This, along with the realistic painting style, provides a feeling of familiarity while, at the same time, offsetting that feeling with unconventional and, sometimes, unsettling imagery.
The participating artists will be present during the opening reception on January 28 from 5-7 p.m. This free event will be held at 3539 Main Street, Weirton, WV, and parking is available behind the building. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibit will be open for viewing from 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until it closes on March 10.
